FISHING FORECAST: Spring tides slow fishing flow on coast

Photo courtesy of Coffee Bluff Marina Savannah area angler Bob Tedder shows a spadefish he landed this past week while fishing the offshore reef areas for cobia. It was the first spadefish recorded for the Coffee Bluff Derby.

Photo courtesy of Coffee Bluff Marina Gulfstream sailfish action, from left, Charles, Stephen and Jack Ezelle show a sailfish they landed this past weekend while fishing Gulf Stream waters. They also landed a wahoo and five dolphi n(mahi).

Photo courtesy of Aaron Morris Aaron Morris with a big cobia he landed this past weekend while fishing in South Carolina's Broad River. The cobia was caught on a menhaden and took about 25 minutes to land.

Mother Nature again put the brakes to a lot of fishing action in recent days, flooding the coastal marshlands and some lowlands with wind-pushed spring tides and stirring up a lot of debris with strong-running currents.

Early in the week, tide levels were still a major slow-down factor as marinas and fishing camps made note of little traffic and few fish being brought to the docks.

“It is about to flood the high ground,” said one fishing camp operator, who said he had heard that it also had covered some of the low areas of Tybee Road.

Still, there is action to be noted, mostly offshore with sailfish, mahi, wahoo, cobia, kings, Spanish mackerel, grouper and vermillion snapper and spadefish on the catch list.

Reef report

First report this week this week came from Capt. Judy Helmey of Miss Judy Charters, who was at one of the artificial reefs at the time.

She noted both trolling and bottom action was good, with the Spanish bite strong on spoons and the summer trout bite similar on bait.

“We ran into a school of summer trout, and they were measuring 17-18 inches,” she said.

Catch limits on summer trout are restrictive, with a daily limit of one per angler.

She also made note of amberjack being caught in the reef areas and said the king action is best on what is known as “live lining,” which is free lining with live bait, and that some of it has been happening in the area of the Naval towers.

Capt. Judy also noted that the Snapper Banks is productive for grouper now that the season is open and also for vermillion snapper.

“It is a little slow this week with the currents running so slow, but it was excellent for both species last week and probably will be again this week as conditions improve,” she said.

Release only

It has been noted for the past several weeks that the blackfish are plentiful over a wide area — so plentiful around the artificial reefs that fishermen have been having problems getting past them to catch other species.

The season is closed for the harvesting of black sea bass and will not open until June 1. All sea bass caught must be released, and any violation of the regulation can result a hefty fine.

Sailfish, cobia

The sailfish action was reported by Capt. Ray Golden at Coffee Bluff Marina, who reported that Georgetown angler Jack Ezelle and sons Charles and Stephen were fishing the Gulf Stream waters Saturday. The Ezelles also landed a wahoo and five mahi, he said.

David Wood, who has been picking up some large cobia from South Carolina’s inshore hotspots in the Broad River and Port Royal Sound, decided to test both the inshore and offshore areas Saturday.

It was a good move. He and Tucker Byrd, Randy Waite and Rob Gobal ended up with cobia from both locations.

“We only kept two fish from the offshore wrecks, but we had several hookups on some truly monster cobia,” he said.

“ ... After a good morning we decided to head back inshore for the grand finale. We restocked on some good bait and hit the spot where we caught last week’s monster. The tides were at the peak times, and 15 minutes after anchor they hit.”

At one point, they had three cobia on at the same time.

“We ended up with five keeper fish from 30 to 40 pounds,” he said.

More cobia

Another Savannah angler, Aaron Morris, who along with three others had a successful cobia catch from offshore waters the last weekend in April, headed to the Broad River this past weekend and managed to get past some hungry sharks to land a big cobia.

Using menhaden for bait, he fought the fish for about 25 minutes before boating it. Another cobia took a bait but broke the line.

Spadefish action also was reported by Capt. Ray Golden. He noted that it was landed last week by Savannah angler Bob Tedder, who was fishing the reef areas for cobia. The species is one of those listed on the Coffee Bluff derby list this year and was the first one to be recorded.

What to expect

While there was no inshore action of significance reported since the spring tides activity, there was some excellent trout action reported last week. The trout action is expected to resume this week as tide levels drop, currents slow and area waters become clear of mud and floating debris.

High tide levels will be dropping back into the 7- and 6-foot range by the weekend and will continue at these levels through the remainder of the month unless affected by winds.

The bait picture is continually changing, and reports received this week indicate most live bait shrimp are coming out of Florida.

However, brown shrimp are beginning to show up in several of the approved dragging areas, and most bait fishermen believe they will be large enough for harvest within the next two to three weeks.